[NewMusic] Marco Eneidi's Animal Farm

[Damon Smith]

On Feb 28, 2007, at 11:50 AM, Phillip Greenlief wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of Damon Smith
> Subject: Re: [NewMusic] Marco Eneidi's Animal Farm
>
> On Feb 28, 2007, at 12:36 AM, Phillip Greenlief wrote:
>
>> Here's my point: I think Marco is a seriously advanced saxophone
>> player,
>> but I'm disappointed that after all these years he has not found a
>> "process" for putting his music together that is: 1) His own.
>
> DS:
> I played Jimmy's music with Marco and Karen Borca and Cecil's music
> with Cecil and in another group with Marco. Marco's music is quite a
> bit different, though coming out of that mould.  His sound is  also not
> really like Jimmy's at all, it is much grittier. The influence of
> working with Bill Dixon is also important.
>
> PG:
> I would say that your comment about coming out of the mold is accurate.
> I would say that your comment that it is "quite bit different" is not
> accurate. Different, yes - quite a bit different - I'm not sure.

- Well Like I said I played all three of their musics and in my 
experience they all did different things.

>  I don't
> see the "obvious" connection to Bill Dixon's music...I could just as
> easily say that I am influenced by Dixon's music, and that it "shows 
> up"
> in my work (but I would never say such a thing).

- Except that Marco worked with BIll Dixon for a longtime and is on one 
of his records.


>
> This is just my opinion, which is nearly meaningless. The only reason I
> wrote this missive was to try to point out some ways of dealing with 
> the
> problems of writing for large ensemble. I'm sorry if any of it came out
> as a slam against Marco. I thought I made that clear from the very
> beginning of my post, but I have a way of saying one thing and then
> writing the opposite a few paragraphs later.
>
> It's the Dostoevsky influence...he was a master at saying he wasn't
> going to say something and then would discuss that thing for the next 5
> pages.
> ;-)
>
> DS:
> The notation system is efficient because it keeps the music from being
> too stiff, the same lines can have multiple rhythms and each person can
> play it their way, even though there is an original way the line goes,
> it keeps it between improvisation and composition, it is only the
> players hang ups that get in the way.
> I thought the material was played well on Sunday, the problems were
> mainly just in volume.
>
> PG:
> I disagree. The notation system is not efficient.
> I would agree that you can have varied results...that's nice.
>
> But I have done the same thing with the deconstruction meditations:
> using traditional notation, but reading it in an unconventional way. I
> think my method is "more efficient" (if you're working with players 
> that
> read music), because someone can understand quickly what you want - 
> then
> they are free to "mess with it" as much as they want, which, in the end
> result, is not so different from Marco's process. We used this method 
> in
> the sextet I had with Goldberg, et. al - when we "deconstructed" 
> Pierrot
> Lunnaire - you're looking at music, but you're not playing what you see
> - you pick the notes and rhythms you want to use and compose your own
> material from what's in front of you. This is ultimately what we had to
> do the other night.
>
> The difference is that it takes minutes, not hours, to rehearse using 
> my
> "process"...that's efficiency, as far as I'm concerned.

- Traditional notation is great, but it freezes a lot of people.  That 
letter system made perfect sense to me from the beginning: you Play 
those notes, first the way Marco or Cecil dictates, then however you 
want. People read too much into it and make it harder than it needs to 
be, when in fact it is as simple as it looks: the letter and up or 
down.  It also allows the particular group to find it's own Rhythm.
It is much easier to transpose and play forward and backward. It takes 
minutes with that stuff too.
It also makes it easier for a bass player, for example, to use all the 
material in the improvisations without have to deal with Bb and Eb 
transpositions.

Damon